“The ability it has to drive your mood is remarkable.”
Dr. David Bannon
Sourdough starter can be a bit temperamental, but when understood it makes beautiful bread.
Successes and failures
Walking into the classic brick house there is a sense of authenticity.
A collection of flags hangs on a wall, a solid oak spiral staircase leads to the basement and a man stands in his kitchen cleaning up after preparing dough for tomorrow’s baguettes.
Dr. David Bannon, a retired surgeon, has been making sourdough bread for 15 years.
He grew up on the west coast of California and travelled from Los Angeles to San Francisco where he was introduced to authentic San Francisco-style sourdough bread.
The unique taste and smell of the bread left an impression on him.
“Every time I have a piece of sourdough it brings me back in my memory of what it was like,” he said.
As he began his career and moved around to different assignments, Bannon realized if he wanted sourdough bread, he was going to have to make it himself, he said.
Sourdough bread begins with a starter, a mixture of flour and water that produces wild yeast unique to its natural environment.
And each has its own temperament.
“Sourdough starters have a personality. It can be all in, all excited, giving you everything it’s got, or it can be petulant,” he said.
The trick is to recognize when the starter is in a good mood or a bad mood and take the necessary steps to get the product you’re hoping to achieve, he said.
“The ability it has to drive your mood is remarkable. You’re in a good mood. It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining. And your sourdough pisses you off. Dammit.”
Sourdough fails are not uncommon and should be expected.
“I’ve made some bricks that just didn’t rise,” Bannon said. “It was like hardtack. Blah!”
Lizzie and Lydia
Iris Linkletter can relate to temperamental sourdough starter.
Linkletter fell in love with the rich smell and flavour of sourdough bread while in Portugal last year.
When she returned home to P.E.I., she decided to figure out how to make her own.
She made a starter and called it “Lizzie”.
“They say name them because they’re like babies,” she said. “They are living, breathing organisms.”
Linkletter and Lizzie were getting along well. Together, they made beautiful bread.
Lizzie was stored in the cupboard, in a jar with a loosely fitted plastic lid.
On a particular summer day Linkletter opened the jar to use it and she freaked out.
“It was just crawling with fruit flies! What?” she said.
“Good-bye baby No. 1.”
Lizzie II didn’t fare well either. The muggy July days attracted maggots.
Now, Linkletter is nurturing Lydia and is hoping for better results.
Bannon and Linkletter know making sourdough bread is more than just following a recipe. It’s an understanding.
“To get to the point where you understand if you do this now, it will create this later, is very satisfying,” Bannon said.
If you are interested in making sourdough bread, here is a beginner’s guide to making sourdough bread.
Good luck!
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